FREE ONLINE NAME LISTINGS is the official GENUKI* site for hosting name interest lists for most counties in the UK & Ireland. It consists of a directory of searchable databases, compiled from public submissions.
It’s a great site for anyone who would like to make contact with other researchers of the same person/name from the same location – and that should be all of us. But isn’t that what Genes Reunited is for, I hear you ask? Well personally I now find the complexity and time required to maintain posts and contacts on sites like that far too much effort for too little return. This site has been around a lot longer, and if it were utilised by more of us it would make a great alternative, and for free to boot. It costs nothing to either list your research interests or to search for and contact cousins and fellow researchers.
The only slight confusion is that it now also maintains lists for those counties for which it is not the official GENUKI site, and at the same time offers links to the ‘official’ lists. What this means to users is that you should list on – and search – both sites for those counties, which are clearly identified.
URL: http://www.list.jaunay.com/index.html
Developed by: Site is owned and maintained by Graham Jaunay, renowned research genealogist of South Australia
Purpose: To provide a database for common research
Main Content: Searchable name lists and researcher contacts, as well as Graham’s ‘Jaunay’ one name study and Proformat Research Service pages
Coverage: Counties in the UK & Ireland, as well as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and USA
Access: Navigation is structured and logical but isn’t quite standard throughout the site. Page colours are neutral with adequately contrasting text, but some list page headers have badly combined colours (background v text) that may present problems for sight impaired users.
Tech Spec: The site uses ‘java’ coding so those using older browser versions may experience problems
Speed: Pages loaded quickly for me in IE7
Ease of use: There are plenty of instructions searching and listing, as well as search tips and a clear FAQ page, etc.
*For anyone not yet familiar with it, GENUKI is the UK researchers ‘one stop shop’ in any quest for information available and where to find it
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